It isn’t often that Google gives us information about their algorithms, but the exception to the rule is a change which could impact more websites than any previous change to their guidelines. The mobile-friendly update could be a game changer.
At the tail end of 2014, Google introduced a new feature which many of you will have noticed when searching from a mobile phone. They added the word “mobile friendly” alongside those sites which work properly on mobiles. This wasn’t a huge change, but meant that people using smartphones would know what to expect before they click on a site.
However, from the 21st April, those sites which are NOT mobile friendly will start to appear lower down in the search results. We don’t yet know exactly how far down, or how severely they will be hit. The important thing to remember is that this ONLY impacts searches done on mobiles. Here are the potential scenarios for your business;
Severe
If your website has a lot of visitors who use mobiles, and is NOT mobile friendly, you can expect to see the most severe impact. Examples of this might be a lock smiths, electrician, plumber etc… i.e business owners who target a local area and who’s services are generally searched for on-the-go.
Moderate
If your website is NOT mobile friendly, but most of your traffic comes from desktop and laptops, you would expect to see minimal impact.
No Impact
If your website IS mobile friendly, but gets little traffic from mobile devices, you will likely not see much change.
Positive Impact
If your website is mobile friendly, and a lot of your visitors use mobiles, you can expect to see huge gains. This is because your competitors sites who are not mobile-friendly will suffer one of the above ill effects.
So, you might be asking what is mobile friendly? A mobile friendly site is one that works properly on any type of device. If someone is using a mobile, a tablet or a desktop, the site will reform to fit the users screen. The user will not need to pinch and zoom in order to see the site. If your site was produced 2 or more years ago, it is unlikely to be mobile friendly, although there are exceptions.
We have been advising all customers to have mobile friendly websites for the past 2 years, and with the launch of this Google update we hope to see those sites perform better within the organic search results. If you need any help making your site mobile friendly, why not call us on 015392 67315.